Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

After playing secret organizations for years, you really come to realize how little people move the way you want them to.
Things exceed expectations, or fall short. They strike from outside your awareness, or accidents happen.
Sometimes things do go as expected, but even then it’s often a case of “thanks to thorough preparation, we were able to deal with irregularities and keep it within the expected framework.” That pattern comes up a lot.

The overseas branch of Amaterasu joining the fight was about half as expected.
At the same time Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi began clashing, Baba deployed filming drones and, carrying a number of PSI Drives, attacked the overseas branch (a separate unit) that had been approaching Atlantis. I was focused on directing the main battlefield, so I don’t know exactly what she did or how she did it. Once we recover the filming drones later, we’ll know.

Baba doesn’t have psychic powers, but she’s nimble and quick-witted. If she supplements her firepower and options with PSI Drives, she can hold her ground to some extent even against four psychics. If you consider Ruu-denka’s electricity to be basically out of the fight at the level of static electricity, it’s practically three-on-one.
Adelheid-chan from the German branch has invisibility, which under normal circumstances boasts a threat level so annoying it’s practically the personification of cheap tricks. But Baba, whose hearing is better than a bat’s, can pull off the battle-manga-like feat of “pinpointing location and movement by sound,” so she was as good as neutralized.

Adelheid-chan’s true value was supposed to shine after Baba was taken down. But from there things went off script. The effects of Haoran-kun draining the Pacific Ocean were immense, and Ruu-denka ended up being sent home. As a result, Adelheid-chan, who was guarding her, also withdrew along with the bound Baba.
As a token parting gift, she put invisibility on Medu-chan and Paula, enabling a surprise attack on Kinekura, but it was a pretty understated contribution. Frustrating.

Now then.
While the two from overseas were coordinating an attack on me, Oyabun suddenly started saying something strange.
Personally, I’d been hoping for the two secret organizations to join forces against a powerful enemy—lots of roaring, big explosions, and anguished “we’re done for!” moments. But an esper’s ultimate technique? That’s news to me. He’s not just making stuff up on the spot, is he? Leave making stuff up to me, please.

“Once you know how, achieving that ultimate technique is easy. Let’s talk about the risks first.”
“Risks? You’re not saying we’ll die, right?”
“No. You’ll just never be able to use psychic powers again. In exchange, you can bring out power that’s incomparable to normal.”

At those words, Shota-kun and Touka-chan began pressing him on what he meant.
But I understood before questioning it. So that’s how it is.

In the past, Oyabun had been left unable to walk due to aftereffects from overusing his psychic powers. Physically he should have been perfectly healthy, but the influence of his battered psychic core had spread to his body and caused a disability. Even when he used his power, he could only move for a few seconds to about ten seconds in exchange for intense pain.
And yet, he went and pulverized the Atlantis ruins in a single blow, and had been unleashing a flurry of punches that would send mountains flying with each swing. That’s strange. At best he should only be able to produce the power of an Olympic athlete, but he was far too strong.

Oyabun must have used what he called an ultimate technique. I don’t understand the fine details, but in exchange for never being able to use psychic powers again, he was displaying superhuman strength.
And because he could no longer use psychic powers, the physical aftereffects tied to his ability were also gone. That must be why he’s been standing, walking, and moving normally without a wheelchair.

There’s no contradiction between what Oyabun claims and what I’ve seen and heard.
Even though the existence of an esper’s Ultimate Technique comes as a complete surprise even to me, who’s been involved with psychic powers longer than anyone in this world, it was Shiori who discovered how to increase the number of psychics, and it was technically correct to say that Baba was the founder of PSI Drives. Given that, it’s entirely possible Oyabun discovered a new way to use psychic powers.

An ultimate psychic technique revealed at the final stage—this is hype! Give me more of that! As I lay playing possum with my head on Shiori’s lap, getting excited internally, Touka-chan was sharply interrogating Oyabun.

“And there really isn’t a catch? You’re not trying to deceive us again, are you?”
“Again? Hey now, have we ever deceived you before?”

Touka-chan nodded firmly.

“Your Baba betrayed us, and you stole a sword at the Marineland ruins.”
“We did deceive you, didn’t we.”

Oyabun nodded firmly too. Is this a comedy routine?
It’d be funny if they kept going, but even as we speak, Medu-chan is holding the line with her eyes bloodshot red, and Paula is diligently carrying unconscious members far away.
Could you take this a little more seriously? Then again, all shred of seriousness is out the window the moment Tsukuyomi joined up.

“Touka.”
“What? Even if you tell me to trust a liar, I—”
“Trust me. Let’s do it.”

Touka-chan stared intently at Shota-kun, her partner and lover of several years with whom she’d run through her youth together, as he spoke forcefully.

“Tell me it’ll absolutely be okay.”
“It’ll absolutely be okay. Leave it to me.”

Touka-chan nodded, then asked Oyabun for instruction on the ultimate technique, while he smiled gently and muttered, “Youth is nice.”

Then a shrill finger whistle rang across the iceberg. It was the prearranged signal to retreat.
With support from time stop, Medu-chan and Paula pulled back. After a few blinks, they were mere dots on the distant horizon.
In their place, standing before the World Shadow, were two espers.

The World Shadow looked up with its eyeless face as Hasumi Touka spread her wings of flame and rose straight into the air, beginning to charge an energy wave.
Touka-chan formed the raigō-in (a hand seal formed by Buddhas) with both hands and said quietly, her eyes calm and still.

“Illuminate the world. Illuminate the Shadow of the World—”

Flames burst from her body in multiple serpentine streams. Her body glowed red-hot, beginning to shine dazzlingly. The iceberg began to melt under the overflowing heat waves, and water vapor shimmered.

“———Amaterasu.”

The heat and flames that overflowed beyond control were sucked for an instant into a humanoid sun, compressed, then explosively released.
The supernatural flames scorched the air, melted the iceberg away, and formed a gigantic crimson sphere wrapped in a raging storm born of steam explosions.
A shockwave that would likely circle the Earth many times dented the sea and was unleashed upon the world, multiplying the destructive flash and heatwave manyfold.

And yet.

“No way…!”

As Touka-chan fell, her wings of flame crumbling and beginning to fade, she cried out in anguish. Amid the steam storm, where parts had turned to plasma and violet lightning ran, a pitch-black silhouette could be glimpsed, telling of the World Shadow still surviving.
Even with her ultimate technique, the World Shadow did not perish.

In truth, the heat she released was on par with the sun. Drawing out astronomical values with a human body goes beyond the word “feat.” But the barrier’s heat resistance can easily withstand the sun’s intense heat.
That said, taking no damage at all even after an ultimate technique would be too much of a broken game, so I processed the World Shadow with damage, making it look as though it had melted away.

“Not yet!”

Shota-kun, who had endured the heatwave with his freezing ability, immediately followed up.
His power is quiet. There’s no flashy sound, light, or blast.
The temperature of his right hand rapidly dropped, the air whitened and solidified, and the surrounding steam storm visibly turned into diamond dust.
Go, Shota-kun! Anything is fine! That World Shadow will die if you so much as pet it!

Shota-kun swung his right hand toward the World Shadow.

“——————!”

He probably said the name of some technique.
But I don’t know what he said.
Because the World Shadow simply vanished.

“!!?!”

I was so shocked I forgot I was playing possum and sprang up.
I hadn’t held back. It was a genuine, full-power barrier. I’d even been thinking of adding a stylish flourish at the end to cap off the finale.
A psychic barrier is a force field, and the idea of a force field freezing solid makes no sense. Even if it did freeze, it shouldn’t amount to anything.
And yet, as a fact, the sensation of psychic power connected to the World Shadow was gone. The hearing and vision I’d linked to it had vanished completely.
By what principle, exactly, did Shota-kun’s ultimate technique erase my psychic power?

In a hurry, I sent clairvoyance back to the scene. In the raging sea, Touka-chan and Shota-kun were holding hands, struggling not to sink.

“Kinemitsu-san?”

Sensing that something had happened, Shiori peered anxiously into my face.
Those gathered atop the small drifting ice floe Shota-kun had left behind for evacuation also watched me, holding their breath.

Ah—no.
That’s right.
This is something to be praised.
At the very end, Shota-kun surpassed my power—surpassed me—head-on.
Is there any better curtain call than that?

With feelings welling up, I said:

“It’s over. The World Shadow is no more.”